Sometimes facts are facts. Yet I can't get past the sensational title on the top browser bar of this article: "A Woman who was dumped as a newborn has told of her decision to give up her own baby for adoption." Beyond using the personally annoying term of "give up," dumped just screams at me. Of course, in Katie's story, she was abandoned in a gym bag by her biological mother. The use of the word abandoned still would have piqued my interest but dumped seems unnecessary in light of her story.

All that said, it's a decent article about her own life as a closed adoption adoptee and the life she is hoping her son has as an open adoption adoptee. Short and to the point, it has a generally positive spin (if not a slight agenda). She compares her life of not knowing anything to the life she is providing for her son through open adoption.

"Unlike my adoption, all of his questions can be answered. I have regular contact with him and see him on average once a month."

Katie lives in Quebec, Canada which actually has a closed adoption system. However, she gave birth and placed in the province of Ontario which allows for open adoptions (and, as of 2005, has an Adoption Information Disclosure Act for adult adoptees and birth parents hoping for reunion). According to the article, she drove across the line into Ontario before she was induced with her son so as to give birth in the right place. To me, that sounds like one determined mother; she knew what she wanted for her son and went out of her way, literally, to provide.

Katie goes on to give a quote that I really like in regards to birth parents, "parenting" and open adoption:

Even though I am not raising him I feel that I am giving him the life he deserves.

She doesn't allude to co-parenting. While her contact could be defined as frequent, she doesn't state that she is involved with his immediate care or decisions that have profound effects upon his life. Instead, she talks about how the openness allows her to feel like she is giving him that life he deserves. I think many birth parents in successful open adoptions can attest to feeling like this from time to time. While there are still some issues involving the loss of that parenting role, the ability to watch that placed child grow and thrive in the home that you selected can be something that helps a birth parent appreciate their own role.

Katie is currently looking for her own birth mother. I'm not sure the title of this article would make any mother willingly step forward but I hope that, upon reunion, her biological mother is able to see the strength and wisdom that Katie possesses, well beyond her years.

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For more on open adoption, read:

1. Mainstream Magazine Wants Birth Mother Perspective.

2. Open Adoption In Their Own Words.

3. Article Touches on the Realities of Open Adoption.

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